Our Charities.

of a proper system of cooking . These and various other reforms avc m progress , and AYC shall watch their effect with considerable interest , but what can he thought of the management of a school where it is boasted that the children are taught household duties to lit them for service in our families , or the wives of men AVIIO , in all probability , will have to cam their living by the sweat of their brow , when it is compelled to be

admitted that great ivaste has been allowed to prevail in that department in which it is the most essential that such children should he properly educated in the advantages of thrift and economy ? A committee has been appointed to endeavour to find out a suitable site or premises for the Boys' School , which Ave trust we are IIOAV shortly to have establishedas the education of our boys cannot fail of being

, thereby considerably improved . "We hope the committee will he guided in their selection by a due regard to economy , and that Ave shall never again hear of such a ivasteful expenditure as that incurred for the Girls ' School , that upon which something like 12 , 000 ? . ivas expended , thereby

denuding the establishment of a proper reserve fund , and rendering the school dependent for the larger part of its annual income on the produce of the festival . And for what was that expenditure incurred ? Nothing that Ave can see except to enable brother Hardwick to erect a beautiful monument of his genius as an architect , in a conspicuous position , Avhere it might he seen by every traveller on the South Western

Eaihvay . We can admire its splendid toAver , and the beauty of its proportions , but Ave would ask , has not internal convenience been sacrificed to carry out these objects ? We Avill venture to answer , in the affirmative : for though the children have not yet been there three years , Ave have reason to believe that alterations are about to be made in order to provide greater accommodation in the laundry , and that too , notwithstanding

the school does not contain more than two-thirds of the number of children it was erected to accommodate . Who Avill have to hear this expense ? The school or the architect ? We pause for a reply , but Ave have our opinion-regarding who should clo so .

We are gratified to hear that a number of the brethren are about to interest themselves to endeavour to adopt some means for increasing the funds of the Aged Masons' and Widows' Benevolent Institution , and at the same time obtaining a remodelling of the laAvs , so as to make them more consistent with the dignity and position of the Craft . We have no hesitation in stating that the laws , as they now exist , are only fitted for a

society consisting of the humblest class of mechanics , and Ave should wonder IIOAV anything so limited could have been devised for a body of men , like the "Freemasons , were Ave not aware how difficult it is , in the first instance , to carry out any benevolent institution . We are grateful to the founders for what they have done , be ours the duty to extend , improve , and amend their design !